The sad sea day

Sunday - September 14, 2014

Another sea day.  And as I said before, I lurve sea days.  But alas, this was the day before NCL kicks us off the ship, so it was a sad, sad day.  How do I live without someone making my bed for me?  How do I live without having access to food 24/7?  And entertainment whenever I feel like it?  The day before disembarkation is always a sad day for me.  Not the least of which because I have to pack and packing for home makes me sad (as opposed to packing for vacation, which thrills me to no end and is one of my favorite things to do). 

My brother and I opted to sleep in, and I didn't even wake up until 11 am.  I could say I was tired from all the early mornings and long days, but really, I'm just a lazy ass.  I don't believe in getting up on the weekends until at least 10 am unless there's a damn good reason (unfortunately, food is often that reason.  I just can't say no to food!).  I know my parents were up and about the ship, but I was sleeping...for the very last night, on a teeny tiny bed that's smaller than a twin.  But when one is on a ship, one does not bitch about the size of the bed.  But I was sort of kind of looking forward to sleeping on a bigger bed.  And my poor parents have been sleeping on the sofa bed.  I know my mom wasn't thrilled with it even after our room steward had added the egg crate, so she was probably excited for the plush king size bed that awaited her at the Hyatt.

The day started out foggy and kind of depressing.

But it got better!  (well, later in the afternoon)

By the time we both got up and rolled out of bed, it was lunch time!  And since we haven't had lunch in La Cucina yet, that's where we decided to go since it was our last chance to do so (sob!):

I got the smoked salmon appetizer, but was nothing like I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to be just plain old smoked salmon - but it was a big ass piece of seared smoked salmon.  Everyone else got the shrimp cocktail - but I personally thought (and so did my mom) that I ended up with the best appetizer.

my smoked salmon with herbed cream cheese and toasted brioche appetizer.  This would actually make a pretty decent super light entree for someone who's not a fat ass like me.

I was not very creative and just went with the NY strip.  It was okay.  It was cooked right, but it wasn't fantastic.  It tasted like the steak in the dining room, except the truffle fries were really good.  And I'm not even a big fry eater (gasp!  I know, I love potatoes - I love them baked, roasted, chipped (?) and fried...but for some reason, I'm not a huge fan of french fries.  Oh, I'll eat them, but they're just okay).  

My mom got the fettuccini.  She said the flavors were good, but thought it was a little too rich for her.

my dad got the seared shrimp and scallops with risotto.  He was traumatized by the cheese grated on it, so being the loving daughter that I am, I picked off the big slices of cheese and ate them for him.  I'm so considerate.

Raymond got the swordfish  burger.  He thought it was a little too salty, but my mom tried it and really liked it

And of course we had to get dessert.  Duh.

I had the carrot cake.  It was good, not too sweet

my mom got the marinated berries.  But where was the almond wafer???

Raymond got the brownies.  They were okay.  Honestly, I make better brownies.  But I make some pretty phenomenal  brownies (can't cook worth a damn, but I can bake)

pineapple sorbet.  My mama got this because she wanted it too

After lunch Raymond and I wandered around the ship a bit.  We went to the photo gallery to look for our photos - but we didn't find any of us that we actually liked enough to spend $12.95 on.  Then we walked through the pool area on our way to get ice cream (hey!  we didn't have ice cream with lunch.  Okay, so he did, but I didn't) and saw that the pool area was a happening place.  Well, happening for an Alaskan cruise anyway.

excuse this crappy picture.  But there were people sitting around the pool with their arms and legs exposed

The rest of the day was spent watching Disneynature's Bears in our stateroom while we took turns packing.  We had actually caught the last half hour the day before and really enjoyed it (who doesn't love baby bears??) and we got excited when we caught it from the very beginning.  Even my brother, whom I didn't think enjoyed documentaries about bears in Alaska.  And because it took us so long to pack (we weren't exactly being efficient about it) we ended up watching Heaven is for Real as well.   In the middle of our inefficient packing/snacking/watching the movies, we also headed outside where whales were being sighted.  The scenery was also fantastic, so we spent about a half hour outside - we could hear the people on the 12th floor (above the bridge) yelling in excitement.  All the peeps with cabins on the front also stepped out - we saw lots of heads and lots of fingers pointing at where whales were spotted.   

see the water spray?  (I know, you can barely see it) - that's where the whale was.  I was using my point and shoot and wasn't fast enough.   Then again, I already have about 742 photos of whales.  

I don't know what this was - one of the chicks in the cabin down from ours started screaming "whale!"  Then it was "dolphins!" then the guy with her said it was just salmon.  Oh well.  

Tonight they had the farewell/finale show and the Sun's production crew's version of Mamma Mia.  My parents wanted to go to that show (my mom just told my dad it was about ABBA.  He has no idea what Mamma Mia is, but he knows ABBA), so we were going to meet up earlier for dinner because our friends wanted to catch the 7:15 show.  Well, we ended up dawdling a little too long and the only option left if we wanted to make the early show was the buffet.  So to the buffet we went.  

We managed to just make the 7:15 show.  Literally.  The lights came down as we sat in our seats.  It was entertaining, more so for me because my brother didn't know any ABBA or any Mamma Mia.  But Scotty Cavanaugh, the juggler, came out and did about 10-15 minutes of his stuff and Raymond enjoyed that.  Then the cruise staff came out and did "fountains", which they encouraged us to take pictures of and record.  I only had my cell on me, so I took a few really bad pictures and recorded the very last bit:

Basically they came out dressed in sheets to look like statues in a fountain (I feel bad for the poor guy who had to come out half nekkid and wear the sheet like a diaper.  Especially when the cat calls began).  They each had a pitcher of water and would spit water on each other like they were figure in a fountain.  It's funnier than it sounds, because their reactions are hilarious.

Being greedy gluttons who are already mourning the loss of food 24/7, we all trooped back to the buffet after the show.  It was actually pretty empty!

I've never seen it this empty before

and look who stopped by the almost empty buffet: the hotel director!

While bumming around our room one day Raymond ended up watching their special about the Epic, and he jabbered about it at various times during the week.  Now he wants to go and cruise on a ship the size of Disneyland.  Which for the record, I am not opposed to.  I just wonder if they'll get me a segway or something so my lazy ass won't have to walk a half hour to our room.  But he told me that aside from the captain, the hotel director is the most powerful person on the ship and most of the staff works under him.  Raymond was impressed as the hotel director of the Epic had about 1700 people working under him - he now holds the hotel director in much higher esteem than before.  But he picked a good night to go and cruise through the buffet - there were barely any people.

While Raymond and I stuffed our faces, the parents went out  back to take photos of the sunset at my dad's insistence.  He's become a big fan of sunsets.  And sunrises.  To my dismay because the man actually tries to rouse me while on vacation to watch a sunrise.  What kind of crack is he smoking???

Thus we ended our last day on the cruise ship.  We were full, happy, the boat was rocking (literally, it was rocking gently back and forth)  and we had seen everything we'd hoped (and hadn't dared hope) to see.  

The next day, we disembark and see Vancouver.

A slow day in Ketchikan

Saturday - September 13, 2014

It's my birthday!  Yay for another year of settling comfortably into spinsterhood (according to my parents).  I guess it's too bad I'm not a cat person (allergies) since I think I could totally make a kick ass crazy cat lady.  But I do have small dog about the size of a cat.  Will he do???

Today is almost like a sea day.  We don't roll into Ketchikan until 1 pm and it's the only port where we have nothing booked.  We had already done Misty Fjord in 2006, and our friends were okay just walking around, so we literally just winged it.  My brother and I wanted to go souvenir shopping and the adults (how funny that we're still not considered adults in our thirties.  We both have graduate degrees and actual jobs.  But when we're with family we're still "the kids". Then the embarrassing stories we've buried deep in our consciousness from our youth are shared with everyone.  Even strangers.  Who now know about that time I peed my pants when I was three.  As you now do) just wanted to walk a bit. So we split up.

But first, breakfast!  Raymond was still trying to get over his jet lag and the staying up all night looking for the Aurora didnt help, so he had announced the night before that he was going to skip breakfast and sleep in.  We all decided to meet for lunch around noon.  But I sure wasn't going to miss breakfast so my parents and I went to La Cucina for the second time for breakfast.  There was a little more people than last time and we had the same server who was super nice.  This time I got the vanilla french toast with berries and mascarpone.  To be honest, I think the french toast itself is the same one served in the buffet and dining rooms, but the addition of the berries and the mascarpone made it pretty magical.  It was very good.  My dad is boring and got eggs sunny side up with potatoes and bacon.  My mom got the fruits de mer she enjoyed a few days before.  Good stuff. Personally, when I'm at a fancy place like La Cucina, I try not to order anything I know how to make (which granted, is pretty limited. I bake more than I cook) or something I can get for $3.99 at Denny's. Because that's just sad. Yes dad, I'm talking to you.

french toast with cheese(!) and bacon.  I love bacon dipped in maple syrup (who doesn't?), but it was also excellent dipped in the berry syrup/reduction thingy

I raided the buffet.  The one in La Cucina.  I didn't see any bagels, so I improvised and used the baguette as the base for my cream cheese and smoked salmon.

dad's eggs, breakfast potatoes and bacon.

mom's fruits de mer.

In completely random irrelevant culinary news, my mom, who has lived in the States over 30 years has finally converted.  To the ways of bacon.  For years, decades, she's refused to eat bacon saying it's just gross fat.  Um, no. Bacon is delicious, it makes everything better and is a gift from God.  I told her not to talk smack about its magical deliciousness in case God decides to take it back.  But after four days at the Lodge (where she found breakfast options limited, though delicious) she finally tried it and has seen the light.  Praise hallelujah!  So while on the Sun, she too would order a side of bacon with breakfast.  She'd only eat one, maybe two strips though.  But baby steps.

I went back to bed after breakfast because I'm a lazy slug and woke my brother up at noon so we could meet everyone else for lunch.  Like everyone else we opted to go to the buffet because it's fast and easy.  Supposedly. For the most part it's kind of a madhouse.  You could always find a place to sit, but there were a lot of traffic jams at the food stations because whoever designed the flow must have been dropped on his head as a child.  Repeatedly.  Once stuffed, we head out.  We kids (hehe) parted ways with the parental units at the dock and went to Creek Street, where we were talked into buying salmon jerky by the guy who said he'd give us $2 off each package.  We later found the same jerky at the market (yes, we wandered into their local market) for about $0.20 less, so we didn't feel too badly ripped off.  Then we ducked in and out of the little shops on Creek Street.  As an aside, I had purchased some smoked salmon from Walmart when I was in Fairbanks. Hey, I had to buy something, and isn't smoked salmon the souvenir everyone brings home???  I found the exact same salmon (Copper River sockeye) selling for about double the price on Creek Street.  I felt vindicated for carrying around boxes of smoked salmon from Fairbanks. Yay!

Can I just say - the weather was phenomenal. It was the FIRST day since we left home on 9/2 that I wore my flip flops out...on land. Not just in our cabin or hotel room or the ship - but on real land. And my ever increasingly pasty legs also made an appearance. Because it was warm, but mostly because I'll be damned if I don't wear every single thing I brought with me and our day in Ketchikan was the first time it was warm enough for a skirt. Ketchikan is one of the rainiest places in Alaska - the last time we were here it was super wet, so the fact that we had clear sunny skies was crazy! But hey! Happy birthday to me! :)

yes, my grody feet.  Sorry.  It's my first foot photo of the trip though.  I have a weird thing where I take a picture of my feet wherever I go.  Something retarded along the lines of documenting where I've walked.  Also, I was completely infatuated with this insta place app.  I couldn't stop using it that day.  And uh...many other days.  I think I overdid it a bit. Just a tad.

this app is stupid.  It's clearly September 13th, but if you set the frame to "welcome to Ketchikan", it insists on reading Sep 12.  Stupid app.  But I still love you!

After wandering through all the shops on Creek Street and still feeling uninspired, we just started to ramble around (which is how we ended up at Tatsuda's IGA, their local market).  And we saw this restaurant, which made us crack up:

Wow.  This sign says a whole lot.  Now, I haven't yelped this place or eaten here, but I can't get over the sign.  It's oriental American food.  So...is this like...Panda Express?  With tacos?  Or Korean tofu topped with french fries?  I'm confused.  But we very much enjoyed the sign.  I think my brother even posted it on facebook.

We had wanted to buy Made in Alaska souvenirs with the little polar bears on them and support local businesses...but neither of us could find anything we really liked.  I had a mission to buy two things: poker cards for my BFF (she's the easiest person in the world to buy souvenirs for - she just wants poker cards from wherever it is I go) - which were freaking hard to find.  Why are there no Ketchikan poker cards???  There are Ketchikan mugs and t-shirts and magnets, but no poker cards that I could find.  And my secretary wanted me to buy her magnets from every city I visited since she collects those.  So I just wanted my cheap ass made in China Ketchikan magnet and some Ketchikan poker cards.  We ended up at the totally touristy and probably cruise ship company owned Tongass Trading store where we bought a bunch of things made in factories that are probably down the street from the factories my brother visits for work (sigh).  

At this point, we've been wandering around for almost 2 hours and I'm about to have fatty food/drink withdrawals.  My brother wanted to return some work emails without worrying about the cost and time (we purchased the 250 minute internet package for $100 and because we got it on the first day, they threw in 20 extra minutes) and wanted some coffee and I wanted to be able to play on facebook and read up on news about my Clippers as well as browse People magazine online without feeling guilty about the amount of money I'm spending to read about Brad and Angelina's wedding (yes, I'm incredibly shallow.  How have you not known??) so we hunted for a coffee shop with free wifi.  We found it close to port: Polar Treats.  It's in this small indoor shopping center - they have chairs and tables "outside" (still inside) and free wifi.  Score!  Although the drinks are kinda pricey.  We spent about $10 for a latte and a Mexican hot cocoa.  But since we were there for over an hour we figured spending $10 for over 120 minutes of internet is a HUGE bargain compared to what we're paying on the ship.  Right across the way there's a taxidermist's shop.  It was a little weird to be sipping our drinks and surfing the internet on our phones (I brought my tablet with me ever hopeful of wifi) and having a chorus of dead animals staring at me.

I checked the prices to some of these - these are freaking expensive!  Like, Chanel purse expensive.  Wow.

After we surf the internet, we're kinda tired and want more real food instead of sugary drinks, so we decide to head back to the ship.

Hello NCL Sun!

We get on the ship and notice that hey!  There's a Tongass Trading right across the street from the one we just went to!  Why??!!

I know we visited the buffet because Raymond likes to go and get ice cream (not soft serve, actual scooped ice cream) like, 4 times a day, but for some reason I had a brain fart and did not document our gluttony!  What?!  Must be the old age creeping in.

Meanwhile, my parents and our friends took some real tourist photos while my brother and I dithered around doing things like strolling in supermarkets and taking photos of our feet:

But they were bored quickly and had headed back to the ship early, and my mom was struck with a case of cruise overeating guilt.  And she wanted to go walking - but just on the promenade.  Not in the city.  Let's not get crazy here.  And since I was eating like the world was ending I decided to accompany her to make myself feel a little better.  It's while we're walking that I realized that I didn't even get a picture of the Welcome to Ketchikan sign!  What??!!  So I go back to the cabin and grab my cell.  Then I decide I'm too lazy to get off the ship (I know - I could literally see the sign from the promenade) so I ghetto styled it and just took a photo FROM the ship.  I was too lazy to go through security coming back in.  That's just sad.

and while I'm at it, might as well take a picture of the sculpture too

My mom said they'd already gotten their obligatory touristy pictures with the sign, but she humored me because it was my birthday (though really, shouldn't we be celebrating her for going through 20 hours of labor and then having to recover from an emergency c-section?) and we took a crappy selfie with the sign.  From the ship.  Because I am that lazy.

After we walked back and forth a gazillion (maybe 7?) times (we couldn't loop all the way around because they were fixing something and had blocked off a section of the promenade - so we just kept walking back and forth on the port side) we went back to the cabin to veg out.  We had 7:30 pm reservations for Le Bistro.  I got to pick the food because well...I planned the trip - so I booked Le Bistro and stuck it on everyone's itinerary (yes, I handed out itineraries) since I wanted French food on my birthday.  Also, I was drunk with power because I was planning the entire vacation.

I had originally wanted to book with La Cucina since my people (my parents anyway) tend to like Italian food more - but they couldn't accommodate a reservation for 6 (their seating is incompatible with more than 5 per party) so I picked Le Bistro because I always wanted to try it.  I think the concierge let slip to the staff it was my birthday because they had a little birthday cake prepared for me and they all came up to me singing happy birthday before they brought out the dessert.  It was sweet of them, though kind of embarrassing.  I don't like being the center of attention.  Though I do like cake!  My mom said our family friend (Uncle Eddie) also told the wait staff it was my birthday.

I had perused the menu ahead of time and had a pretty good idea what we should get since I know what my parents will and will not eat.  My poor dad loves lamb, but no one else in the household eats lamb (I know, a meat I don't like.  For some reason it's just too gamey for me.  Though I still blame my uncle's spectacularly horrible lamb stew for turning me off of lamb forever when I was 14) so he never gets any unless we go to a restaurant that has it on the menu.  Which is rare because when he eats out, it's usually at a Chinese place and we don't do lamb unless it's in hot pot.  So I told him to order to lamb (which Uncle Eddie did as well).  As for the rest of us...we all opted for the lobster.  Which was delicious.  It's rare for me to go to a restaurant and not get steak though.  I thought I'd get the tenderloin, but I was encouraged by everyone else to get the lobster and buckled to peer pressure.  Also, lobster is delicious, so it's not like I fought too hard.  They brought us baskets of bread (my dad kept eating the bread, he said it was so good) and also toasted baguette slices with salmon mousse.  That was really tasty - we had demolished both plates and our waiter was nice enough to bring us more.

toasted baguette with salmon mousse

the delicious salmon mousse, before we devoured it

scallop appetizer.  Just about everyone at our table got this.  Except for me.  And one of our friends who got the escargot (no pic because he was sitting too far from me) said they were already shelled.  He had been worried about the escargot, he didn't want a Pretty Woman moment.  My brother liked the scallops more than the mussels I ordered.

I wanted something different so I ordered the mussels in some kind of garlicky cream sauce.  Mmm....  Once I finished the mussels, I grabbed some bread and used that to sop up some of the sauce.  What's sad?  I think I enjoyed the bread and sauce more than the mussels themselves.

Our entrees:

lamb chops

lobster!  (with potatoes.  Which look like ginormous cloves of garlic in this photo)

Here's us:

Raymond in his cool guy pose

me in my "I don't look that old  yet, right?" pose

Aunt Grace, my mama and me

Ray and dad.  And this was like, the only time my dad wore the coat my mom brought for him.  And it took up like a quarter of his suitcase!

Ray, dad and Uncle Eddie

And here's where they came and sang to me and surprised the crap of me when they plopped a cake down in front of me and started singing happy birthday:

this was good cake!  It was actually similar to Chinese cake, which I generally don't like since I don't like whip cream (sacrilege I know.  I like cream, I like butter - I just don't like the in between stage).  But it was a sweetened spongy vanilla cake with strawberry sauce.  Sweet, but not too sweet.  I just scraped off the whipped cream.

Then our desserts came:

I ordered the profiteroles for my dad.  The only dessert he will eat (other than birthday cake - because you can't diss someone on their birthday) are cream puffs.  These were as close as I could find.  And I still ended up eating one of them and my brother the other. 

I got the creme brulee.  So did my mama (who btw, is diabetic.  But she'll usually eat a bite or two then pass  her dessert around for others to try).  SOOOO good.

everyone else got the chocolate napoleon thing.  This was good too, but it was very, very rich and no one could finish theirs because they were all afraid they'd fall into a sugar coma and their teeth will fall out.

We actually didn't have the cake until later because we already had our desserts ordered.  So the wait staff was totally cool, they wrapped it up and had it delivered to our cabin (and included extra plates and silverware) because we wanted to go to the show.  We ended up missing the first 10 minutes or so, but that's okay, I caught the Queen portion.  Yes, I am a closet Queen fan.  No, I don't own any gold lamé pants. My favorite song is Under Pressure (the one with David Bowie) and yes, it drives me crazy when people start screaming "Ice ice baby!" when Under Pressure comes on.  Really people??!!  Also, I get a little overly excited when We Will Rock You starts playing at Clippers games.  I'm that moron jumping up and down singing the whole song.  

But tonight was the Rock You Tonight show.  I knew most of the songs (and man, the costumes...those were some shiny, tight and bedazzled outfits) and of course they ended with the crowd favorites: Don't Stop Believing and We Will Rock You.  It was fun, we all had a good time and I had a fun birthday.  Definitely better than last year's birthday at Disneyland (though I love the Disneyland.  I think you have to for them to allow you to live in Orange County).

After the production show they introduced the people who made the ship run and ensured that we all had an awesome vacation:

Then it was back to the cabin where we got another towel animal (as well as a reminder about the time change):

My mom actually started packing her stuff (because we all needed to pack the next day) but we got her to stop and we laid around in bed and watched random stuff on the TV.  We ended up watching A LOT of stuff on TV this vacation.  The best part?  We had ESPN, though I wished we also had ESPN 2 because I wanted to watch the FIBA tournament :(